物联网时代的Myo 不只是超级遥控器“澳门太阳网”

The keyboard; the mouse; the touchscreen: each new generation of computing has been accompanied by its own new kind of input device. But as we enter the internet-of-things era, no standard has yet been established.键盘、鼠标、触摸屏，每一代新的计算机技术都预示着一种新式的输出设备。但在我们转入物联网时代之际，输出领域还仍未创建起统一的标准。Several companies are trying to free us from the screen altogether, creating ways to control our digital lives by using little more than the “input devices” we were born with — the natural gestures of our hands and fingers.有几家公司正在尝试让我们几乎从屏幕前众生出来，它们利用的不过是我们与生俱来的“输出设备”——手和手指的大自然活动——从而发明者出有掌控我们的数字生活的方法。Gesture-control technology has come a long way since Nintendo’s Wii got gamers off the sofa and waving their arms around in the living room. Now Microsoft’s Kinect can track precisely how our limbs move. The 3in Leap Motion controller, which plugs into a PC, can detect the tiniest changes in the position of a finger.自任天堂(Nintendo)的Wii游戏机使玩家离开了沙发、在客厅四处手持手臂以来，手势控制技术早已获得了相当大变革。

现在，微软公司(Microsoft)的Kinect可以准确跟踪我们四肢的任何动作。相连个人电脑的3英寸Leap Motion控制器，可以观测出有手指方位最微小的变动。

But using Kinect or Leap means keeping within the field of view of their cameras. A new device, Myo, which I first tried at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, takes a whole new approach to gesture control that does not require a camera.但用于Kinect或Leap Motio必须正处于它们的摄像机镜头范围内。我在1月美国消费电子展(CES)上首次体验的一款新的设备Myo，使用了一种全新的、不必须摄像机的手势掌控方式。

When it works, Myo can make you feel like Luke Skywalker using the Force or Tom Cruise in Minority Report. But rather than lightsabres, Myo’s maker, Canada-based Thalmic Labs, has decided the killer app is rather less Hollywood than that: helping to give slideshow presentations.当Myo运营时，它可以让你感觉像用于光剑的卢克天行者(Luke Skywalker)或者《少数派报告》(Minority Report)中的汤姆克鲁斯(Tom Cruise)。但Myo的制造商——加拿大科技公司Thalmic Labs——要求了这款刺客级应用于近没好莱坞大片里的光剑那么神秘：它可以用来帮助幻灯片展示。Slideshow start幻灯片开始The Myo armband comprises eight rectangular 2in blocks, linked with stretchy rubber and worn snugly on the forearm in direct contact with the skin. Its electromyography (EMG) sensors read electrical activity in the muscles to detect gestures in the hand, while other sensors track the motion of the arm. The armband sends this information to a paired computer or smartphone via Bluetooth, with a barely perceptible delay.Myo臂的环由8块通过弹性橡胶连接、2英寸大小的长方块构成，可以紧贴着套在前臂上，必要与皮肤认识。臂环中的肌电图(EMG)传感器可以通过加载用户肌肉中的电活动来辨识手势，还有其他传感器追踪手臂运动。

这款臂环可以在瞬间将这些信息通过蓝牙发送到筛选的电脑或智能手机上。Syncing the armband with a computer requires a special pairing gesture: start with your arm across your chest, gently flex your wrist away from your body, pause, then move the whole arm. The movement is purposely not natural to avoid accidental activation, and it took me a while to get right every time.将这种臂的环与电脑实时必须一套类似的筛选手势：首先将双臂交叉在胸前，将手腕用力卡住身体，停止，然后拿起整个手臂。这套手势无意设计成大同小异手臂的大自然动作，以防止车祸转录设备。每次实时，我都要花点时间才能做到对姿势。

Other gestures are a mixture of the intuitive and the awkward. In place of the double-click of a mouse, you double-tap your finger and thumb together. In the slideshow presentation mode, this action replaces the basic clicker or space bar traditionally used to advance through PowerPoint or Keynote, and it works reliably well. I found it a little harder to go back a slide by cocking my wrist inwards and holding it there for a second.其它手势有的是本能的，有的看上去也不典雅。只要两根手指头触碰两下就可以代替双击鼠标的动作。在展示幻灯片时，这一动作可以代替基本的遥控器或者传统上用来网页PowerPoint或者Keynote的空格键，而且展现出非常可信。

我找到通过向内举起手腕并维持一秒钟以回看一张幻灯片有点可玩性。One might ask why, other than sci-fi show-off value, one would wish to replace a clicker with hand gestures. The Myo does add a couple of features: making a fist and rotating it anticlockwise turns on a virtual laser- pointer that can be guided around the screen just by moving your arm; turning the fist clockwise zooms into whatever you are pointing at.有人可能会问，除了科幻小说式夸耀的价值，人们有什么理由期望用手势替换遥控器。Myo的确减少了几个功能：握拳并逆时针旋转可以打开一支虚拟世界激光笔，然后可以通过移动手臂引领光束在屏幕上游回头；顺时针旋转拳头，可以将你指向的任何画面缩放表明。Overall, it is a neat trick, especially for those who like to move around the room as they give a presentation.总的来说，这是一套很精妙的设计，特别是在是对那些讨厌边休息边演说的人来说。

More broadly, I worry that pitching Myo as a super-clicker sells its tech short. The device can also be used to control PC applications such as video games, music and movie players, and even email, where opening and closing a fist or rotating a hand can control playback, volume or delete emails. These are fun, but not quite compelling enough to wear Myo all the time.总的来说，我担忧，将Myo定位为一款超级遥控器高估了其科技价值。这款设备也可以用来掌控电脑应用于，如视频游戏、音乐和电影播放器，甚至电子邮件，只要你张开或握紧拳头或者旋转一只手就可以掌控播出、音量或者移除电邮。

这些都很有意思，但要让人一直配戴Myo，还过于有说服力。However, an enthusiastic developer community is coming up with new and ambitious uses all the time. The Myo can already be used to control internet-connected lightbulbs, a GoPro camera, toy robots or fly a drone.不过，一个热情的开发者社区正在大大明确提出新的、根本性的用途。Myo早已需要被用作掌控终端互联网的灯泡、GoPro摄像机、玩具机器人或者操纵无人机飞行中。

It has huge potential in virtual reality, where there is a desperate need for a breakthrough input device that brings hand and arm movements into a virtual world. Demonstrations have already shown the Myo working with the Oculus Rift, Facebook’s virtual reality headset.它在虚拟现实中有极大潜力，这个领域急需一种突破性的输出设备将手和手臂的运动带进虚拟世界。展示活动早已表明出有，Myo可以与Facebook的虚拟现实头戴设备Oculus Rift协同工作。

Mass movement大众市场Stephen Lake, Thalmic Labs’ chief executive, says presentations will be a “gateway” reason for the mass market to buy Myo — not just the geeks who want to click their fingers to turn lights on or to disappear into virtual worlds.Thalmic Labs首席执行官斯蒂芬莱克(Stephen Lake)称之为，幻灯片展示将是大众市场出售Myo的“入门”原因——而不只是那些想轻击手指才可熄灯或者消失于虚拟世界的极客不会出售。I hope the marketing tactic works, because Myo’s applications are still catching up with a technology that might one day become the standard for how we will operate the internet of things.我期望这一营销策略需要奏效，因为Myo的各种应用于仍在追赶一种技术，也许有一天这种技术能沦为我们操纵物联网的标准。

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